How To Convert A Squat Trike

Hi All,

Welcome to another installment of the Squat Revival here at Uplifting Primer, I'll be continuing with my squat conversion guides, this was supposed to be 'How to convert a Squat HWT but as the parts haven't arrived as of yet, I'm posting the article I was planning for the next update.

Now back in the days of Rogue Trader squats were famous for their Guild Heavy Weapon Trike Teams and their skid turns that enabled them to move, spin the bike round, fire the heavy weapon (with no penalty) and then continue to move. Sadly no one will let me use this rule yet, but I live in hope :)

I have, however a large number of bike wheels and the front mudguards for the wheels due to a number of conversions I recently did for jetbikes. This, it seems, was all the reason I needed to start assembling Squat trikes...



What You Will Need

Cadian torso
Cadian legs
Cadian Grenade launcher left arm
Cadian Heavy weapon left arm (the grasping hand one, rather than the cupped hand)
Right arm of choice (I used a pointy arm)
Space marine backpack
Head of choice (In this case I’ve used a marauder head)
Shoulder pad (either from a vehicle crew member or command squad)
Space Marine Bike
Extra set of bike wheels
Extra set of front mudguards for bike (x2 or x1 and 2 of the hubcaps from an attack bike)
Ravenwing searchlight x2
Strip of plasticard

Stage 1 – The Trike

Step 1 – Main assembly

Assemble the bike as normal, leaving off the back wheel. Using a razor saw remove the exhausts from the sides of where the back wheel should be. And cut off the rear pieces of plastic that hang down and file off the and you should be left with this...





Step 2 – New Wheel Arches

Take one extra set of mudguards and file the outside flat, these are then attached to the sides of the bike where the wheel should be, covering the gap. You’ll notice that these are further forward then would normally be the case. Using a knife/saw/clippers shorten the overhanging arch at the back of the bike to the same point as the rearmost point of the mudguards you’ve just added to the sides. You should now have this...



Step 3 – The Engine

Use a slanted piece of plasticard to run from the bottom of the wheel arch to where the back of the bike finishes, use two side by side Ravenwing searchlights to represent the engine. You should now have something that looks like this...









Step 4 – Rear Wheels and Housing

You now have a choice, if you want (and have the parts) you can simply attach the two wheels to the housing and use two hubcaps from the attack bike sprue to finish off the bike, or if you are going for a more armoured look you can use another set of mudguards. Assuming you are using the mud guards you will need to line up the mudguards with the ones already glued to the trike. You’ll also need either a lot of sanding or a bit of greenstuff in order to smooth out the armoured housing.

I choose the hubcap route and it should look something like this...

Stage 2 – The Rider

Step 1 – Legs, Torso and Backpack

Take a razor saw and cut the legs apart just below the edge of the jacket, as you did for the ‘normal’ squat. Now, using the razor saw, cut the boots from the remainder of the legs at a slight angle (when attached you want them to be pushed forward) and then reattach the boots to the bottom of the jacket (you might want to test-fit the legs on the bike before going any further, if necessary you can use a file to thin the seat on the bike to get a good fit). Attach the torso to the legs as normal, and finally attach the backpack.

Step 2 – Left arm

Carefully remove the grasping hand from the heavy weapon team left arm (shown left) and set to one side. Remove the left hand from the grenade launcher arm and carefully cut away the shoulder pad. You will now need to use a file to angle the shoulder so that the arm sticks out further to the side rather than almost straight ahead, test fit the arm, hand and torso fit together correctly (you may need to use a little green stuff to fill in a few gaps) and finally attach the shoulder pad to cover any gaps.

Step 3 – Finishing touches

Finally glue on the right arm of choice and the head (told you I was saving it for something special TKE), and attach the rider to his new trike. I've still a few things to do this one myself, adding on the backpack (I've none spare at the moment) and attaching some kit (bedrolls etc) to the bike to complete the look, looks like its time to start hitting the bitz sites lol!